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The following is an account of my arrest and subsequent interrogation by Egyptian security forces after paddling a kayak illegally across Lake Nasser from Sudan in 2007. It is the first of a five-part excerpt taken from To the Brink, the concluding volume of my circumnavigation trilogy, published August of this year.

In August of 2005, April and I found ourselves camping on an idyllic islet off the north coast of Flores, Indonesia, during a 7-month kayaking expedition from East Timor to Singapore. An experience that first night on the island left us badly shaken, and our skepticism of black magic and blind acceptance of Western scientific thought both in doubt. This is the first of a three-part excerpt from my upcoming book, To the Brink (published April 1, 2015).

In this extract from my forthcoming book, To the Brink, I am privy to a whole new perspective on the meaning of suffering while biking India

“Malamūtra, excrement, is so intrinsic to life in rural India that for some it constitutes their sole reason to be. I saw a thirteen-year-old boy who should have been at school squatting under a cow’s backside instead, his job being to wait until the thing shat. When finally it did, he caught the deluge in a rudimentary baseball mitt fashioned from an old grocery bag. Like an expert pastry chef he then mixed in some straw and spanked the steaming matter into four dung-patties before laying them out in the sun to dry for fuel.

If you haven’t already got your hands on a copy, the second part of The Expedition adventure book series is now available in print and ebook formats in the UK and rest of the world.

Book cover for The Seed Buried Deep by Jason Lewis

Those left hanging at the end of Dark Waters will find out what happens when you’re run down on an isolated stretch of American highway by the Worshipful Master of the local Masonic Lodge. Does he stop and call for an ambulance? Does he keep driving, later claiming that he thought he’d hit a deer (even though your rucksack has gone through the windshield and is sitting in his wife’s lap), leaving a working-class Hispanic guy to step up to the plate? As The Seed Buried Deep reveals, truth can be stranger than fiction.

May 6, 2013. BillyFish Books editor Tammie Stevens and I are delighted to announce that Dark Waters, first in The Expedition trilogy chronicling the first human-powered circumnavigation of the Earth, has won the First Horizon Award for the current Eric Hoffer Award season.

After some distribution hiccups, I’m thrilled to announce UK and worldwide publication of Dark Waters, first in The Expedition trilogy chronicling the first human-powered circumnavigation of the Earth.

DESCRIPTION: He survived a terrifying crocodile attack off Australia’s Queensland coast, blood poisoning in the middle of the Pacific, malaria in Indonesia and China, and acute mountain sickness in the Himalayas. He was hit by a car and left for dead with two broken legs in Colorado, and incarcerated for espionage on the Sudan-Egypt border.

The first in a thrilling adventure trilogy, Dark Waters charts one of the longest, most gruelling, yet uplifting and at times irreverently funny journeys in history, circling the world using just the power of the human body, hailed by the London Sunday Times as “The last great first for circumnavigation.”

But it was more than just a physical challenge. Prompted by what scientists have dubbed the “perfect storm” as the global population soars to 8.3 billion by 2030, adventurer Jason Lewis used the expedition to reach out to thousands of schoolchildren, calling attention to our interconnectedness and shared responsibility of an inhabitable Earth for future generations.

The second book in the series, The Seed Buried Deep, will be available soon. Apologies for the delay in publication.

Special thanks for bringing this story to the written page go to Kenny Brown (photos), Tammie Stevens (editor), Rob Antonishen (maps), and Anthony DiMatteo (editing).

Huge thanks to everyone who has pledged so far to Kenny Brown’s Indiegogo campaign. The funding drive ends soon. However, there’s still time to reserve your advance copy of the DVD, signed books, photos, and much more!

Eyes sunken and glazed, besieged by dark rings, April nurses a handful of raw oats. She sorts with thumb and forefinger, picking out a few loose grains and placing them in her mouth. The bones in her face protrude as she chews.

It’s an underhand comment, especially in light of her unremitting seasickness, but it’s one of the few ways I can get her to eat. Becoming a burden to the voyage is still her biggest fear. Continue reading →